GEOGRAPHY

_General Features._--In general terms Arabia may be described as a

plateau sloping gently from south-west to north-east, and attaining its

greatest elevation in the extreme south-west. The western escarpment of

the plateau rises steeply from the Red Sea littoral to a height of from

4000 to 8000 ft., leaving a narrow belt of lowland rarely exceeding 30

m. in width between the shore and the foot-hills. On the north-east and

east the plateau shelves gradually to the Euphrates and the Persian

Gulf; only in the extreme east is this general easterly slope arrested

by the lofty range of Jebel Akhdar, which from Ras Musandan to Ras el

Had borders the coast of Oman.

Its chief characteristic is the bareness and aridity of its surface;

one-third of the whole desert, and of the remainder only a small

proportion is suited to settled life, owing to its scanty water-supply

and uncertain rainfall. Its mountains are insufficient in elevation and

extent to attract their full share of the monsoon rains, which fall so

abundantly on the Abyssinian highlands on the other side of the Red Sea;

for this reason Arabia has neither lakes nor forests to control the

water-supply and prevent its too rapid dissipation, and the rivers are

mere torrent beds sweeping down occasionally in heavy floods, but

otherwise dry.

The country falls naturally into three main divisions, a northern, a

central and a southern; the first includes the area between the Midian

coast on the west and the head of the Persian Gulf on the east, a desert

tract throughout, stony in the north, sandy in the south, but furnishing

at certain seasons excellent pasturage; its population is almost

entirely nomad and pastoral. The central zone includes Hejaz (or Hijaz),

Nejd and El Hasa; much of it is a dry, stony or sandy steppe, with few

wells or watering-places, and only occupied by nomad tribes; but the

great wadis which intersect it contain many fertile stretches of

alluvial soil, where cultivation is possible and which support a

considerable settled population, with several large towns and numerous

villages.

The third or southern division contains the highland plateaus of Asir

and Yemen in the west, and J. Akhdar in the east, which with a temperate

climate, due to their great elevation and their proximity to the sea,

deserve, if any part of Arabia does, the name of Arabia Felix--the

population is settled and agricultural, and the soil, wherever the

rainfall is sufficient, is productive. The Batina coast of Oman,

irrigated by the mountain streams of J. Akhdar, is perhaps the most

fertile district in the peninsula; Hadramut, too, contains many large

and prosperous villages, and the torrents from the Yemen highlands

fertilize several oases in the Tehama (or Tihama) or lowlands of the

western and southern coast. These favourable conditions of soil and

climate, however, extend only a comparatively short distance into the

interior, by far the larger part of which is covered by the great

southern desert, the Dahna, or Ruba el Khali, empty as its name implies,

and uninhabitable.

_Exploration._--Before entering on a detailed description of the several

provinces of Arabia, our sources of information will be briefly

indicated. Except in the neighbourhood of Aden, no regular surveys

exist, and professional work is limited to the marine surveys of the

Indian government and the admiralty, which, while laying down the coast

line with fair accuracy, give little or no topographical information

inland. For the mapping of the whole vast interior, except in rare

cases, no data exist beyond the itineraries of explorers, travelling as

a rule under conditions which precluded the use of even the simplest

surveying instruments. These journeys, naturally following the most

frequented routes, often cover the same ground, while immense tracts,

owing to their difficulty of access, remain unvisited by any European.

The region most thoroughly explored is Yemen, in the south-west corner

of the peninsula, where the labours of a succession of travellers from

Niebuhr in 1761 to E. Glaser and R. Manzoni in 1887 have led to a fairly

complete knowledge of all that part of the province west of the capital

Sana; while in 1902-1904 the operations of the Anglo-Turkish boundary

commission permitted the execution of a systematic topographical survey

of the British protectorate from the Red Sea to the Wadi Bana, 30 m.

east of Aden. North of Yemen up to the Hejaz border the only authority

is that of E.F. Jomard's map, published in 1839, based on the

information given by the French officers employed with Ibrahim Pasha's

army in Asir from 1824 to 1827, and of J. Halevy in Nejran. On the south

coast expeditions have penetrated but a short distance, the most notable

exceptions being those of L. Hirsch and J.T. Bent in 1887 to the

Hadramut valley. S.B. Miles, J.R. Wellsted, and S.M. Zwemer have

explored Oman in the extreme east; but the interior south of a line

drawn from Taif to El Katr on the Persian Gulf is still virgin ground.

In northern Arabia the Syrian desert and the great Nafud (Nefud) have

been crossed by several travellers, though a large area remains

unexplored in the north-east between Kasim and the gulf. In the centre,

the journeys of W. Palgrave, C. Doughty, W. Blunt and C. Huber have done

much to elucidate the main physical features of the country. Lastly, in

the north-west the Sinai peninsula has been thoroughly explored, and the

list of travellers who have visited the Holy Cities and traversed the

main pilgrim routes through Hejaz is a fairly long one, though, owing to

the difficulties peculiar to that region, the hydrography of southern

Hejaz is still incompletely known.

Modern Exploration in Yemen.

The story of modern exploration begins with the despatch of C. Niebuhr's

mission by the Danish government in 1761. After a year spent in Egypt

and the Sinai peninsula the party reached Jidda towards the end of 1762,

and after a short stay sailed on to Lohaia in the north of Yemen, the

exploration of which formed the principal object of the expedition;

thence, travelling through the Tehama or lowlands, Niebuhr and his

companions visited the towns of Bet el Fakih, Zubed and Mokha, then the

great port for the coffee trade of Yemen. Continuing eastward they

crossed the mountainous region and reached the highlands of Yemen at

Uden, a small town and the centre of a district celebrated for its

coffee. Thence proceeding eastwards to higher altitudes where coffee

plantations give way to fields of wheat and barley, they reached the

town of Jibla situated among a group of mountains exceeding 10,000 ft.

above sea-level; and turning southwards to Taiz descended again to the

Tehama via Hes and Zubed to Mokha. The mission, reduced in numbers by

the death of its archaeologist, von Haven, again visited Taiz in June

1763, where after some delay permission was obtained to visit Sana, the

capital of the province and the residence of the ruling sovereign or

imam. The route lay by Jibla, passing the foot of the lofty Jebel Sorak,

where, in spite of illness, Forskal, the botanist of the party, was able

to make a last excursion; a few days later he died at Yarim. The mission

continued its march, passing Dhamar, the seat of a university of the

Zedi sect, then frequented by 500 students. Thence four marches,

generally over a stony plateau dominated by bare, sterile mountains,

brought them to Sana, where they received a cordial welcome from the

imam, el Mahdi Abbas.

The aspect of the city must have been nearly the same as at present;

Niebuhr describes the _enceinte_ flanked by towers, the citadel at the

foot of J. Nukum which rises 1000 ft. above the valley, the fortress and

palace of the imams, now replaced by the Turkish military hospital, the

suburb of Bir el Azab with its scattered houses and gardens, the Jews'

quarter and the village of Rauda, a few miles to the north in a fertile,

irrigated plain which Niebuhr compares to that of Damascus. After a stay

of ten days at Sana the mission set out again for Mokha, travelling by

what is now the main route from the capital to Hodeda, through the rich

coffee-bearing district of J. Haraz, and thence southward to Mokha,

where they embarked for India. During the next year three other members

of the party died, leaving Niebuhr the sole survivor. Returning to

Arabia a year later, he visited Oman and the shores of the Persian Gulf,

and travelling from Basra through Syria and Palestine he reached Denmark

in 1764 after four years' absence.

The period was perhaps specially favourable for a scientific mission of

the sort. The outburst of fanaticism which convulsed Arabia twenty years

later had not then reached Yemen, and Europeans, as such, were not

exposed to any special danger. The travellers were thus able to move

freely and to pursue their scientific enquiries without hindrance from

either people or ruler. The results published in 1772 gave for the first

time a comprehensive description not only of Yemen but of all Arabia;

while the parts actually visited by Niebuhr were described with a

fulness and accuracy of detail which left little or nothing for his

successors to discover.

Asir.

Jauf and Marib.

C.G. Ehrenberg and W.F. Hemprich in 1825 visited the Tehama and the

islands off the coast, and in 1836 P.E. Botta made an important journey

in southern Yemen with a view to botanical research, but the next

advance in geographical knowledge in south Arabia was due to the French

officers, M.O. Tamisier, Chedufau and Mary, belonging to the Egyptian

army in Asir; another Frenchman, L. Arnaud, formerly in the Egyptian

service, was the first to visit the southern Jauf and to report on the

rock-cut inscriptions and ruins of Marib, though it was not till 1869

that a competent archaeologist, J. Halevy, was able to carry out any

complete exploration there. Starting from Sana, Halevy went

north-eastward to El Madid, a town of 5000 inhabitants and the capital

of the small district of Nihm; thence crossing a plateau, where he saw

the ruins of numerous crenellated towers, he reached the village of

Mijzar at the foot of J. Yam, on the borders of Jauf, a vast sandy

plain, extending eastwards to El Jail and El Hazm, where Halevy made his

most important discoveries of Sabaean inscriptions: here he explored

Main, the ancient capital of the Minaeans, Kamna on the banks of the W.

Kharid, the ancient Caminacum, and Kharibat el Beda, the Nesca of Pliny,

where the Sabaean army was defeated by the Romans under Aelius Gallus in

24 B.C. From El Jail Halevy travelled northward, passing the oasis of

Khab, and skirting the great desert, reached the fertile district of

Nejran, where he found a colony of Jews, with whom he spent several

weeks in the oasis of Makhlaf. An hour's march to the east he discovered

at the village of Medinat el Mahud the ruins of the Nagra metropolis of

Ptolemy. In June 1870 he at last reached the goal of his journey, Marib;

here he explored the ruins of Medinat an Nahas (so called from its

numerous inscriptions engraved on brass plates), and two hours to the

east he found the famous dam constructed by the Himyarites across the W.

Shibwan, on which the water-supply of their capital depended.

One other explorer has since visited Marib, the Austrian archaeologist,

E. Glaser (1855-1908), who achieved more for science in Yemen than any

traveller since Niebuhr. Under Turkish protection, he visited the

territory of the Hashid and Bakil tribes north-east of Sana, and though

their hostile attitude compelled him to return after reaching their

first important town, Khamr, he had time to reconnoitre the plateau

lying between the two great wadis Kharid and Hirran, formerly covered

with Himyaritic towns and villages; and to trace the course of these

wadis to their junction at El Ish in the Dhu Husen country, and thence

onward to the Jauf. In 1889 he succeeded, again under Turkish escort, in

reaching Marib, where he obtained, during a stay of thirty days, a large

number of new Himyaritic inscriptions. He was unable, however, to

proceed farther east than his predecessors, and the problem of the Jauf

drainage and its possible connexion with the upper part of the Hadramut

valley still remains unsolved.

Exploration in Hadramut.

The earliest attempt to penetrate into the interior from the south coast

was made in 1835 when Lieuts. C. Cruttenden and J.R. Wellsted of the

"Palinurus," employed on the marine survey of the Arabian coast, visited

the ruins of Nakb (el Hajar) in the W. Mefat. The Himyaritic

inscriptions found there and at Husn Ghurab near Mukalla, were the first

records discovered of ancient Arabian civilization in Hadramut. Neither

of these officers was able to follow up their discoveries, but in 1843

Adolph von Wrede landed at Mukalla and, adopting the character of a

pilgrim to the shrine of the prophet Hud, made his way northward across

the high plateau into the W. Duwan, one of the main southern tributaries

of the Hadramut valley, and pushed on to the edge of the great southern

desert; on his return to the W. Duwan his disguise was detected and he

was obliged to return to Mukalla. Though he did not actually enter the

main Hadramut valley, which lay to the east of his track, his journey

established the existence of this populous and fertile district which

had been reported to the officers of the "Palinurus" as lying between

the coast range and the great desert to the north. This was at last

visited in 1893 by L. Hirsch under the protection of the sultan of

Mukalla, the head of the Kaiti family, and practically ruler of all

Hadramut, with the exception of the towns of Saiyun and Tarim, which

belong to the Kathiri tribe. Starting like von Wrede from Mukalla,

Hirsch first visited the W. Duwan and found ancient ruins and

inscriptions near the village of Hajren; thence he proceeded

north-eastward to Hauta in the main valley, where he was hospitably

received by the Kaiti sultan, and sent on to his deputy at Shibam. Here

he procured a Kathiri escort and pushed on through Saiyun to Tarim, the

former capital. After a very brief stay, however, he was compelled by

the hostility of the people to return in haste to Shibam, from which he

travelled by the W. bin Ali and W. Adim back to Mukalla. J. Theodore

Bent and his wife followed in the same track a few months later with a

well-equipped party including a surveyor, Imam Sharif, lent by the

Indian government, who made a very valuable survey of the country passed

through. Both parties visited many sites where Himyaritic remains and

inscriptions were found, but the hostile attitude of the natives, more

particularly of the Seyyids, the religious hierarchy of Hadramut,

prevented any adequate examination, and much of archaeological interest

undoubtedly remains for future travellers to discover.

Exploration in Oman.

In Oman, where the conditions are more favourable, explorers have

penetrated only a short distance from the coast. Niebuhr did not go

inland from Muscat; the operations by a British Indian force on the

Pirate coast in 1810 gave no opportunities for visiting the interior,

and it was not till 1835 that J.R. Wellsted, who had already tried to

penetrate into Hadramut from the south, landed at Muscat with the idea

of reaching it from the north-east. Sailing thence to Sur near Ras el

Had, he travelled southward through the country of the Bani bu Ali to

the borders of the desert, then turning north-west up the Wadi Betha

through a fertile, well-watered country, running up to the southern

slopes of J. Akhdar, inhabited by a friendly people who seem to have

welcomed him everywhere, he visited Ibra, Semed and Nizwa at the

southern foot of the mountains. Owing to the disturbed state of the

country, due to the presence of raiding parties from Nejd, Wellsted was

unable to carry out his original intention of exploring the country to

the west, and after an excursion along the Batina coast to Sohar he

returned to India.

In 1876 Colonel S.B. Miles, who had already done much to advance

geographical interests in south Arabia, continued Wellsted's work in

Oman; starting from Sohar on the Batina coast he crossed the dividing

range into the Dhahira, and reached Birema, one of its principal oases.

His investigations show that the Dhahira contains many settlements, with

an industrious agricultural population, and that the unexplored tract

extending 250 m. west to the peninsula of El Katr is a desolate gravelly

steppe, shelving gradually down to the salt marshes which border the

shores of the gulf.

Exploration in Hejaz.

Leaving southern Arabia, we now come to the centre and north. The first

explorer to enter the sacred Hejaz with a definite scientific object was

the Spaniard, Badia y Leblich, who, under the name of Ali Bey and

claiming to be the last representative of the Abbasid Caliphs, arrived

at Jidda in 1807, and performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. Besides giving

to the world the first accurate description of the holy city and the Haj

ceremonies, he was the first to fix the position of Mecca by

astronomical observations, and to describe the physical character of its

surroundings. But the true pioneer of exploration in Hejaz was J.L.

Burckhardt, who had already won a reputation as the discoverer of Petra,

and whose experience of travel in Arab lands and knowledge of Arab life

qualified him to pass as a Moslem, even in the headquarters of Islam.

Burckhardt landed in Jidda in July 1814, when Mehemet Ali had already

driven the Wahhabi invaders out of Hejaz, and was preparing for his

farther advance against their stronghold in Nejd. He first visited Taif

at the invitation of the pasha, thence he proceeded to Mecca, where he

spent three months studying every detail of the topography of the holy

places, and going through all the ceremonies incumbent on a Moslem

pilgrim. In January 1815 he travelled to Medina by the western or coast

route, and arrived there safely but broken in health by the hardships of

the journey. His illness did not, however, prevent his seeing and

recording everything of interest in Medina with the same care as at

Mecca, though it compelled him to cut short the further journey he had

proposed to himself, and to return by Yambu and the sea to Cairo, where

he died only two years later.

His striking successor, Sir Richard Burton, covered nearly the same

ground thirty-eight years afterwards. He, too, travelling as a Moslem

pilgrim, noted the whole ritual of the pilgrimage with the same keen

observation as Burckhardt, and while amplifying somewhat the latter's

description of Medina, confirms the accuracy of his work there and at

Mecca in almost every detail. Burton's topographical descriptions are

fuller, and his march to Mecca from Medina by the eastern route led him

over ground not traversed by any other explorer in Hejaz: this route

leads at first south-east from Medina, and then south across the lava

beds of the Harra, keeping throughout its length on the high plateau

which forms the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. His original

intention had been after visiting Mecca to find his way across the

peninsula to Oman, but the time at his disposal (as an Indian officer on

leave) was insufficient for so extended a journey; and his further

contributions to Arabian geography were not made until twenty-five years

later, when he was deputed by the Egyptian government to examine the

reported gold deposits of Midian. Traces of ancient workings were found

in several places, but the ores did not contain gold in paying

quantities. Interesting archaeological discoveries were made, and a

valuable topographical survey was carried out, covering the whole Midian

coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to the mouth of the Wadi Hamd,

and including both the Tehama range and the Hisma valley behind it;

while the importance of the W. Hamd and the extent of the area drained

by its tributaries was for the first time brought to light.

Exploration in Nejd.

Burckhardt had hoped in 1815 that the advance of the Egyptian expedition

would have given him the opportunity to see something of Nejd, but he

had already left Arabia before the overthrow of the Wahhabi power by

Ibrahim Pasha had opened Nejd to travellers from Hejaz, and though

several European officers accompanied the expedition, none of them left

any record of his experience. It is, however, to the Egyptian conquest

that the first visit of a British traveller to Nejd is due. The Indian

government, wishing to enter into relations with Ibrahim Pasha, as _de

facto_ ruler of Nejd and El Hasa, with a view to putting down piracy in

the Persian Gulf, which was seriously affecting Indian trade, sent a

small mission under Captain G.F. Sadlier to congratulate the pasha on

the success of the Egyptian arms, and no doubt with the ulterior object

of obtaining a first-hand report on the real situation. On his arrival

at Hofuf, Sadlier found that Ibrahim had already left Deraiya, but still

hoping to intercept him before quitting Nejd, he followed up the

retreating Egyptians through Yemama, and Wushm to Ras in Kasim, where he

caught up the main body of Ibrahim's army, though the pasha himself had

gone on to Medina. Sadlier hesitated about going farther, but he was

unable to obtain a safe conduct to Basra, or to return by the way he had

come, and was compelled reluctantly to accompany the army to Medina.

Here he at last met Ibrahim, but though courteously received, the

interview had no results, and Sadlier soon after left for Yambu, whence

he embarked for Jidda, and after another fruitless attempt to treat with

Ibrahim, sailed for India. If the political results of the mission were

_nil_, the value to geographical science was immense; for though no

geographer himself, Sadlier's route across Arabia made it possible for

the first time to locate the principal places in something like their

proper relative positions; incidentally, too, it showed the

practicability of a considerable body of regular troops crossing the

deserts of Nejd even in the months of July and August.

Sadlier's route had left Jebel Shammar to one side; his successor, G.A.

Wallin, was to make that the objective of his journey. Commissioned by

Mehemet Ali to inform him about the situation in Nejd brought about by

the rising power of Abdallah Ibn Rashid, Wallin left Cairo in April

1845, and crossing the pilgrim road at Ma'an, pushed on across the

Syrian desert to the Wadi Sirhan and the Jauf oasis, where he halted

during the hot summer months. From the wells of Shakik he crossed the

waterless Nafud in four days to Jubba, and after a halt there in the

nomad camps, he moved on to Hail, already a thriving town, and the

capital of the Shammar state whose limits included all northern Arabia

from Kasim to the Syrian border. After a stay in Hail, where he had

every opportunity of observing the character of the country and its

inhabitants, and the hospitality and patriarchal, if sometimes stern,

justice of its chief, he travelled on to Medina and Mecca, and returned

thence to Cairo to report to his patron. Early in 1848 he again returned

to Arabia, avoiding the long desert journey by landing at Muwela, thence

striking inland to Tebuk on the pilgrim road, and re-entering Shammar

territory at the oasis of Tema, he again visited Hail; and after

spending a month there travelled northwards to Kerbela and Bagdad.

Palgrave's journey to Nejd.

The effects of the Egyptian invasion had passed away, and central Arabia

had settled down again under its native rulers when W.G. Palgrave made

his adventurous journey through Nejd, and published the remarkable

narrative which has taken its place as the classic of Arabian

exploration. Like Burton he was once an officer in the Indian army, but

for some time before his journey he had been connected with the Jesuit

mission in Syria. By training and temperament he was better qualified to

appreciate and describe the social life of the people than their

physical surroundings, and if the results of his great journey are

disappointing to the geographer, his account of the society of the oasis

towns, and of the remarkable men who were then ruling in Hail and Riad,

must always possess an absorbing interest as a portrait of Arab life in

its freest development.

Following Wallin's route across the desert by Ma'an and Jauf, Palgrave

and his companion, a Syrian Christian, reached Hail in July 1862; here

they were hospitably entertained by the amir Talal, nephew of the

founder of the Ibn Rashid dynasty, and after some stay passed on with

his countenance through Kasim to southern Nejd. Palgrave says little of

the desert part of the journey or of its Bedouin inhabitants, but much

of the fertility of the oases and of the civility of the townsmen; and

like other travellers in Nejd he speaks with enthusiasm of its bright,

exhilarating climate. At Riad, Fesal, who had been in power since the

Egyptian retirement, was still reigning; and the religious tyranny of

Wahhabism prevailed, in marked contrast to the liberal regime of Talal

in Jebel Shammar. Still, Palgrave and his companions, though known as

Christians, spent nearly two months in the capital without molestation,

making short excursions in the neighbourhood, the most important of

which was to El Kharfa in Aflaj, the most southerly district of Nejd.

Leaving Riad, they passed through Yemama, and across a strip of sandy

desert to El Hasa where Palgrave found himself in more congenial

surroundings. Finally, a voyage to the Oman coast and a brief stay there

brought his adventures in Arabia to a successful ending.

Doughty.

Charles Doughty, the next Englishman to visit northern Arabia, though he

covered little new ground, saw more of the desert life, and has

described it more minutely and faithfully than any other explorer.

Travelling down from Damascus in 1875 with the Haj caravan, he stopped

at El Hajr, one of the pilgrim stations, with the intention of awaiting

the return of the caravan and in the meantime of exploring the rock-cut

tombs of Medain Salih and El Ala. Having successfully completed his

investigations and sent copies of inscriptions and drawings of the tombs

to Renan in Paris, he determined to push on farther into the desert.

Under the protection of a sheikh of the Fukara Bedouin he wandered over

the whole of the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. Visiting Tema, where

among other ancient remains he discovered the famous inscribed stone,

afterwards acquired by Huber for the Louvre. Next summer he went on to

Hail and thence back to Khaibar, where the negro governor and townsmen,

less tolerant than his former Bedouin hosts, ill-treated him and even

threatened his life. Returning to Hail in the absence of the amir, he

was expelled by the governor; he succeeded, however, in finding

protection at Aneza, where he spent several months, and eventually after

many hardships and perils found his way to the coast at Jidda.

Three years later Mr Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt made their expedition

to J. Shammar. In their previous travels in Syria they had gained the

confidence and friendship of a young sheikh whose family, though long

settled at Tadmur, came originally from Nejd, and who was anxious to

renew the connexion with his kinsmen by seeking a bride among them. In

his company the Blunts set out from Damascus, and travelled across the

Syrian desert by the Wadi Sirhan to Jauf. Here the sheikh found some of

his relations and the matrimonial alliance was soon arranged; but though

the object of the journey had been attained, the Blunts were anxious to

visit Hail and make the acquaintance of the amir Ibn Rashid, of whose

might and generosity they daily heard from their hosts in Jauf. The long

stretch of waterless desert between Jauf and J. Shammar was crossed

without difficulty, and the party was welcomed by the amir and

hospitably entertained for a month, after which they travelled

northwards in company with the Persian pilgrim caravan returning to

Kerbela and Bagdad.

Huber.

In 1883 the French traveller, C. Huber, accompanied by the

archaeologist, J. Euting, followed the same route from Damascus to Hail.

The narrative of the last named forms a valuable supplement to that

published by the Blunts, and together with Doughty's, furnishes as

complete a picture as could be wished for of the social and political

life of J. Shammar, and of the general nature of the country. Huber's

journal, published after his death from his original notes, contains a

mass of topographical and archaeological detail of the greatest

scientific value: his routes and observations form, in fact, the first

and only scientific data for the construction of the map of northern

Arabia. To archaeology also his services were of equal importance, for,

besides copying numerous inscriptions in the district between Hail and

Tema, he succeeded in gaining possession of the since famous Tema stone,

which ranks with the Moabite stone among the most valuable of Semitic

inscriptions. From Hail Huber followed nearly in Doughty's track to

Aneza and thence across central Nejd to Mecca and Jidda, where he

despatched his notes and copies of inscriptions. A month later, in July

1884, he was murdered by his guides a few marches north of Jidda, on his

way back to Hail.

One other traveller visited Hail during the lifetime of the amir

Mahommed--Baron E. Nolde--who arrived there in 1893, not long after the

amir had by his victory over the combined forces of Riad and Kasim

brought the whole of Nejd under his dominion. Nolde crossed the Nafud to

Haiyania by a more direct track than that from Shakik to Jubba. The amir

was away from his capital settling the affairs of his newly acquired

territory; Nolde therefore, after a short halt at Hail, journeyed on to

Ibn Rashid's camp somewhere in the neighbourhood of Shakra. Here he was

on new ground, but unfortunately he gives little or no description of

his route thither, or of his journey northwards by the Persian pilgrim

road, already traversed by Huber in 1881. His narrative thus, while

containing much of general interest on the climate and on the animal

life of northern Arabia, its horses and camels in particular, adds

little to those of his predecessors as regards topographical detail.

General results of exploration.

If the journeys detailed above be traced on the map they will be found

to cover the northern half of the peninsula above the line Mecca-Hofuf,

with a network of routes, which, though sometimes separated by wide

intervals, are still close enough to ensure that no important

geographical feature can have been overlooked, especially in a country

whose general character varies so little over wide areas. In the

southern half, on the other hand, except in Nejran and Jauf, no European

traveller has penetrated 100 m. in a direct line from the coast. The

vast extent of the Dahna, or great southern desert, covering perhaps

250,000 sq. m., accounts for about a third of this area, but some of the

most favoured districts in Arabia--Asir and northern Yemen--remain

unexplored, and the hydrography of the Dawasir basin offers some

interesting problems, while a great field remains for the archaeologist

in the seat of the old Sabaean kingdom from Jauf to the Hadramut valley.

Sinai Peninsula.

_Topographical Details._--Beginning from the north-west, the Sinai

peninsula belongs to Egypt, though geographically part of Arabia. It

is bounded on the E. by a line drawn from Ar Rafa, a few miles E. of

El Arish on the Mediterranean, to the head of the Gulf of Akaba; and

on the W. by the Suez Canal; its length from El Arish to its most

southern point is 240 m., and its breadth from Suez to Akaba is nearly

160 m. The greater part drains to the Mediterranean, from which the

land rises gradually to the summit of the Tih plateau. The deep

depression of Wadi Feran separates the Tih from the higher mass of

Sinai (q.v.), in which J. Katherine attains a height of 8500 ft.;

except in W. Feran there is little cultivable land, the greater part

consisting of bare, rocky hills and sandy valleys, sparsely covered

with tamarisk and acacia bushes. The Egyptian pilgrim road crosses the

peninsula from Suez to Akaba, passing the post of An Nakhl, with a

reservoir and a little cultivation, about half way; a steep descent

leads down from the edge of the Tih plateau to Akaba.

Syrian desert.

The rest of the northern borderland is covered by the Syrian desert,

extending from the borders of Palestine to the edge of the Euphrates

valley. This tract, known as the Hamad, is a gravelly plain unbroken

by any considerable range of hills or any continuous watercourse

except the Wadi Hauran, which in rainy seasons forms a succession of

pools from J. Hauran to the Euphrates. Its general slope is to the

north-east from the volcanic plateau of the Harra south of J. Hauran

to the edge of the Euphrates valley. The Wadi Sirhan, a broad

depression some 500 ft. below the average level of the Hamad, crosses

it from north-east to south-west between Hauran and Jauf; it has a

nearly uniform height above sea-level of 1850 ft., and appears to be

the bed of an inland sea rather than a true watercourse. Water is

found in it a few feet below the surface, and a little cultivation is

carried on at the small oases of Kaf and Ithri, whence salt produced

in the neighbouring salt lakes is exported. The W. Sirhan is

continuous with the depression known as the Jauf, situated on the

northern edge of the Nefud or Nafud, and the halfway station between

Damascus and Hail; and it is possible that this depression continues

eastward towards the Euphrates along a line a little north of the

thirtieth parallel, where wells and pasturages are known to exist.

Jauf is a small town consisting, at the time of the Blunts' visit in

1879, of not more than 500 houses. The town with its gardens,

surrounded by a mud wall, covers a space of 2 m. in length by half a

mile in width; the basin in which it lies is barely 3 m. across, and

except for the palm gardens and a few patches of corn, it is a dead

flat of white sand, closed in by high sandstone cliffs, beyond which

lies the open desert. The oases of Sakaka and Kara are situated in a

similar basin 15 m. to the east; the former a town of 10,000

inhabitants and somewhat larger than Jauf according to Huber.

The Nafud.

A short distance south of Jauf the character of the desert changes

abruptly from a level black expanse of gravel to the red sands of the

Nafud. The northern edge of this great desert follows very nearly the

line of the thirtieth parallel, along which it extends east and west

for a length of some 400 m.; its breadth from north to south is 200 m.

Though almost waterless, it is in fact better wooded and richer in

pasture than any part of the Hamad; the sand-hills are dotted with

_ghada_, a species of tamarisk, and other bushes, and several grasses

and succulent plants --among them the _adar_, on which sheep are said

to feed for a month without requiring water--are found in abundance in

good seasons. In the spring months, when their camels are in milk, the

Bedouins care nothing for water, and wander far into the Nafud with

their flocks in search of the green pasture which springs up

everywhere after the winter rains. A few wells exist actually in the

Nafud in the district called El Hajra, near its north-eastern border,

and along its southern border, between J. Shammar and Tema, there are

numerous wells and artificial as well as natural reservoirs resorted

to by the nomad tribes.

Owing to the great extent of the Nafud desert, the formation of

sand-dunes is exemplified on a proportionate scale. In many places

longitudinal dunes are found exceeding a day's journey in length, the

valleys between which take three or four hours to cross; but the most

striking feature of the Nafud are the high crescent-shaped sand-hills,

known locally as _falk_ or _falj_, described by Blunt and Huber, who

devoted some time to their investigation. The falks enclose a deep

hollow (known as _ka'r_), the floor of which is often hard soil bare

of sand, and from which the inner slopes of the falk rise as steeply

as the sand will lie (about 50 deg.). On the summit of the falk there

is generally a mound known as _tas_ or _barkhus_ composed of white

sand which stands out conspicuously against the deep red of the

surrounding deserts; the exterior slopes are comparatively gentle. The

falks are singularly uniform in shape, but vary greatly in size; the

largest were estimated by Huber and Euting at 1-1/4 m. across and 330

ft. deep. They run in strings irregularly from east to west,

corresponding in this with their individual direction, the convex face

of the falk being towards the west, i.e. the direction of the

prevailing wind, and the cusps to leeward. In the south of the Nafud,

where Huber found the prevailing wind to be from the south, the falks

are turned in that direction. Though perhaps subject to slight changes

in the course of years, there is no doubt that these dunes are

practically permanent features; the more prominent ones serve as

landmarks and have well-known distinctive names. The character of the

vegetation which clothes their slopes shows that even superficial

changes must be slight. The general level of the Nafud was found by

Huber's observations to be about 3000 ft. above sea-level; the highest

point on the Jauf-Hail route is at Falk Alam, the rocky peaks of which

rise 200 or 300 ft. above the surface of the sand. Other peaks

cropping out of the Nafud are Jebel Tawil, near the wells of Shakik,

and J. Abrak Rada, a long black ridge in the middle of the desert.

The Harra.

The high plateau which from. J. Hauran southward forms the main

watershed of the peninsula is covered in places by deep beds of lava,

which from their hardness have preserved the underlying sandstones

from degradation, and now stand up considerably above the general

level. These tracts are known as _harra_; the most remarkable is the

Harrat El Awerid, west of the Haj route from Tebuk to El Ala, a

mountain mass 100 m. in length with an average height of over 5000

ft., and the highest summit of which, J. Anaz, exceeds 7000 ft. The

harra east of Khaibar is also of considerable extent, and the same

formation is found all along the Hejaz border from Medina to the Jebel

el Kura, east of Mecca. The surface of the harra is extremely broken,

forming a labyrinth of lava crags and blocks of every size; the whole

region is sterile and almost waterless, and compared with the Nafud it

produces little vegetation; but it is resorted to by the Bedouin in

the spring and summer months when the air is always fresh and cool. In

winter it is cold and snow often lies for some time.

Hejaz.

Hejaz, if we except the Taif district in the south, which is properly

a part of the Yemen plateau, forms a well-marked physical division,

lying on the western slope of the peninsula, where that slope is at

its widest, between the Harra and the Red Sea. A high range of granite

hills, known as the Tehama range, the highest point of which, J. Shar,

in Midian, exceeds 6500 ft., divides it longitudinally into a narrow

littoral and a broader upland zone 2000 or 3000 ft. above the sea.

Both are generally bare and unproductive, the uplands, however,

contain the fertile valleys of Khaibar and Medina, draining to the

Wadi Hamd, the principal river system of western Arabia; and the Wadi

Jadid or Es Safra, rising in the Harra between Medina and Es Safina,

which contain several settlements, of which the principal produce is

dates. The quartz reefs which crop out in the granite ranges of the

Tehama contain traces of gold. These and the ancient copper workings

were investigated by Burton in 1877. The richer veins had evidently

been long ago worked out, and nothing of sufficient value to justify

further outlay was discovered. The coast-line is fringed with small

islets and shoals and reefs, which make navigation dangerous. The only

ports of importance are Yambu and Jidda, which serve respectively

Medina and Mecca; they depend entirely on the pilgrim traffic to the

holy cities, without which they could not exist.

Nejd.

The great central province of Nejd occupies all inner Arabia between

the Nafud and the southern desert. Its northern part forms the basin

of the Wadi Rumma, which, rising in the Khaibar harra, runs

north-eastward across the whole width of Nejd, till it is lost in the

sands of the eastern Nafud, north of Aneza. The greater portion of

this region is an open steppe, sandy in places and in others dotted

with low volcanic hills, but with occasional ground water and in

favourable seasons furnishing support for a considerable pastoral

population. Its elevation varies from about 5000 ft. in the west to

2500 ft. in the east. In Jebel Shammar, Kasim and Wushm, where the

water in the wadi beds rises nearly to the ground level, numerous

fertile oases are found with thriving villages and towns.

Jebel Shammar, from which the northern district of Nejd takes its

name, is a double range of mountains some 20 m. apart, rising sharply

out of the desert in bare, granite cliffs. J. Aja, the western and

higher of the two ranges, has a length of about 100 m. from north-east

to south-west, where it merges into the high plateau extending from

and continuous with the Khaibar harra. The highest point, J. Kara,

near its north-eastern extremity, is about 4600 ft. above sea-level,

or 1600 ft. above the town of Hail, which, like most of the larger

villages, lies along the wadi bed at the foot of J. Aja. The town,

which has risen with the fortunes of the Ibn Rashid family to be the

capital of Upper Nejd, is at the mouth of the valley between the twin

ranges, about 2 m. from the foot of J. Aja, and contained at the time

of Nolde's visit in 1893 about 12,000 inhabitants.

The principal tributaries of the W. Rumma converge in lower Kasim, and

at Aneza Doughty says its bed is 3 m. wide from bank to bank. Forty

years before his visit a flood is said to have occurred, which passed

down the river till it was blocked by sand-drifts at Thuwerat, 50 m.

lower down, and for two years a lake stood nearly 100 m. long, crowded

by waterfowl not known before in that desert country. Below this its

course has not been followed by any European traveller, but it may be

inferred from the line of watering-places on the road to Kuwet, that

it runs out to the Persian Gulf in that neighbourhood.

East of Kasim the land rises gradually to the high plateau culminating

in the ranges of Jebel Tuwek and J. Arid. The general direction of

these hills is from north-west to south-east. On the west they rise

somewhat steeply, exposing high cliffs of white limestone, which

perhaps gave Palgrave the impression that the range is of greater

absolute height than is actually the case. J. Tuwek in any case forms

an important geographical feature in eastern Nejd, interrupting by a

transverse barrier 200 m. in length the general north-easterly slope

of the peninusla, and separating the basin of the W. Rumma from that

of the other great river system of central Arabia, the Wadi Dawasir.

The districts of Suder and Wushm lie on its northern side, Arid in the

centre, and Aflaj, Harik and Yemama on its south, in the basin of the

W. Dawasir; the whole of this hilly region of eastern Nejd is,

perhaps, rather a rolling down country than truly mountainous, in

which high pastures alternate with deep fertile valleys, supporting

numerous villages with a large agricultural population. The W. Hanifa

is its principal watercourse; its course is marked by an almost

continuous series of palm groves and settlements, among which Deraiya

the former, and Riad the present, capital of the Ibn Saud kingdom are

the most extensive. Its lower course is uncertain, but it probably

continues in a south-east direction to the districts of El Harik and

Yemama when, joined by the drainage from Aflaj and the W. Dawasir, it

runs eastward till it disappears in the belt of sandy desert 100 m. in

width that forms the eastern boundary of Nejd, to reappear in the

copious springs that fertilize El Hasa and the Bahrein littoral.

Unexplored region of S. Nejd.

As regards the unexplored southern region, Palgrave's informants in

Aflaj, the most southerly district visited by him, stated that a day's

march south of that place the Yemen road enters the W. Dawasir, up

which it runs for ten days, perhaps 200 m., to El Kura, a thinly

peopled district on the borders of Asir; this accords with the

information of the French officers of the Egyptian army in that

district, and with that of Halevy, who makes all the drainage from

Nejran northward run to the same great wadi. Whether there be any

second line of drainage in southern Nejd skirting the edge of the

great desert and following the depression of the W. Yabrin must remain

a matter of conjecture. Colonel Miles concluded, from his enquiries,

that the low salt swamp, extending inland for some distance from Khor

ed Duwan, in the bay east of El Katr, was the outlet of an extensive

drainage system which may well be continuous with the W. Yabrin and

extend far into the interior, if not to Nejran itself.

El Hasa.

East of Nejd a strip of sandy desert 50 m. in width extends almost

continuously from the great Nafud to the Dahna. East of this again a

succession of stony ridges running parallel to the coast has to be

crossed before El Hasa is reached. This province, which skirts the

Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Euphrates to the frontiers of Oman,

is low and hot; its shores are flat, and with the exception of Kuwet

at the north-west corner of the gulf, it possesses no deep water

port. North of Katif it is desert and only inhabited by nomads; at

Katif, however, and throughout the district to the south bordering on

the Gulf of Bahrein there are ample supplies of underground water,

welling up in abundant springs often at a high temperature, and

bringing fertility to an extensive district of which El Hofuf, a town

of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, is the most important centre.

South-western Arabia.

South-western Arabia, from the twenty-first parallel down to the Gulf

of Aden, including the Taif district of Hejaz, Asir and Yemen, forms

one province geographically. Throughout its length it consists of

three zones, a narrow coastal strip, rarely exceeding 20 m. in width,

a central mountainous tract, embracing the great chain which runs

parallel to the coast from near Taif to within 50 m. of Aden, and an

inner plateau falling gradually to the north-east till it merges in

the Nejd steppes or the sands of the great desert.

The lowland strip or Tehama consists partly of a gravelly plain, the

_Khabt_, covered sparsely with acacia and other desert shrubs and

trees, and furnishing pasturage for large flocks of goats and camels;

and partly of sterile wastes of sand like the _Ramla_, which extends

on either side of Aden almost from the seashore to the foot of the

hills. The Tehama is, however, by no means all desert, the mountain

torrents where they debouch into the plain have formed considerable

tracts of alluvial soil of the highest degree of fertility producing

in that warm equable climate two and even three crops in the year. The

flood-water is controlled by a system of dams and channels constructed

so as to utilize every drop, and the extent of cultivation is limited

more by the supply of water available than by the amount of suitable

soil. These districts support a large settled population and several

considerable towns, of which Bet el Fakih and Zubed in the western and

Lahej in the southern Tehama, with 4000 to 6000 inhabitants, are the

most important. There are signs that this coastal strip was until a

geologically recent period below sea-level; and that the coast-line is

still receding is evidenced by the history of the town of Muza, once a

flourishing port, now 20 m. inland; while Bet el Fakih and Zubed, once

important centres of the coffee trade, have lost their position

through the silting up of the ports which formerly served them.

The jebel or mountain-land is, however, the typical Yemen, the _Arabia

Felix_ of the ancients. Deep valleys winding through the barren

foothills lead gradually up to the higher mountains, and as the track

ascends the scenery and vegetation change their character; the trees

which line the banks of the wadi are overgrown with creepers, and the

running stream is dammed at frequent intervals, and led off in

artificial channels to irrigate the fields on either side; the steeper

parts of the road are paved with large stones, substantially built

villages, with their masonry towers or _dars_, crowning every height,

replace the collection of mud walls and brushwood huts of the low

country; while tier above tier, terraced fields cover the hill slopes

and attest the industry of the inhabitants and the fertility of their

mountains. On the main route from Hodeda to Sana the first coffee

plantations are reached at Usil, at an altitude of 4300 ft., and

throughout the western slopes of the range up to an altitude of 7000

ft. it is the most important crop. Jebel Haraz, of which Manakha, a

small town of 3000 inhabitants is the chief place, is described by

Glaser as one vast coffee garden. Here the traveller ascending from

the coast sees the first example of the jebel or highland towns, with

their high three-storeyed houses, built of quarried stone, their

narrow facades pierced with small windows with whitewashed borders and

ornamented with varied arabesque patterns; each dar has the appearance

of a small castle complete in itself, and the general effect is rather

that of a cluster of separate forts than of a town occupied by a

united community.

The scenery in this mountain region is of the most varied description;

bare precipitous hill-sides seamed with dry, rocky watercourses give

place with almost startling rapidity to fertile slopes, terraced

literally for thousands of feet. General Haig in describing them says:

"One can hardly realize the enormous labour, toil and perseverance

that these represent; the terrace walls are usually 5 to 8 ft. in

height, but towards the top of the mountains they are sometimes as

much as 15 or 18 ft.; they are built entirely of rough stone without

mortar, and I reckon that on an average each wall retains not more

than twice its own height in breadth, and I do not think I saw a

single break in them unrepaired."

The highest summits as determined by actual survey are between 10,000

and 11,000 ft. above sea-level. J. Sabur, a conspicuous mass in the

extreme south, is 9900 ft., with a fall to the Taiz valley of 5000

ft.; farther north several points in the mountains above Ibb and Yarim

attain a height of 10,500 ft., and J. Hadur, near the Sana-Hodeda

road, exceeds 10,000 ft. From the crest of the range there is a short

drop of 2000 or 3000 ft. to the broad open valleys which form the

principal feature of the inner plateau. The town of Yarim lies near

its southern extremity at an altitude of about 8000 ft.; within a

short distance are the sources of the W. Yakla, W. Bana and W. Zubed,

running respectively east and south and west. The first named is a dry

watercourse ultimately joining the basin of the W. Hadramut; the two

others run for a long distance through fertile valleys and, like many

of the wadis on the seaward side of the range, have perennial streams

down to within a few miles of the sea. Sana, the capital of Yemen,

lies in a broad valley 7300 ft. above sea-level, sloping northwards to

the W. Kharid which, with the Ghail Hirran, the sources of which are

on the eastern slopes of J. Hadur, run north-eastward to the Jauf

depression. The Arhab district, through which these two great wadis

run, was formerly the centre of the Himyar kingdom; cultivation is now

only to be found in the lower parts on the borders of the

watercourses, all above being naked rock from which every particle of

soil has been denuded. In the higher parts there are fine plains where

Glaser found numerous Himyaritic remains, and which he considers were

undoubtedly cultivated formerly, but they have long fallen out of

cultivation owing to denudation and desiccation--the impoverishment of

the country from these causes is increasing. Eastward the plateau

becomes still more sterile, and its elevation probably falls more

rapidly till it reaches the level of the Jauf and Nejran valleys on

the borders of the desert. The water-parting between central and

southern Arabia seems to be somewhere to the south of Nejran, which,

according to Halevy, drains northward to the W. Dawasir, while the

Jauf is either an isolated depression, or perhaps forms part of the

Hadramut basin.

Asir.

Farther north, in Asir, the plateau is more mountainous and contains

many fertile valleys. Of these may be mentioned Khamis Mishet and the

Wadi Shahran rising among the high summits of the maritime chain, and

the principal affluents of the Wadi Besha; the latter is a broad

well-watered valley, with numerous scattered hamlets, four days'

journey (perhaps 80 m.) from the crest of the range. Still farther

north is the Wadi Taraba and its branches running down from the

highland district of Zahran. The lower valleys produce dates in

abundance, and at higher elevations wheat, barley, millets and

excellent fruit are grown, while juniper forests are said to cover the

mountain slopes. In Yemen this tree was probably more common formerly;

the place-name Arar, signifying juniper, is still often found where

the tree no longer exists.

Coast of Yemen.

Hadramut.

The western coast of Yemen, like that of Hejaz, is studded with shoals

and islands, of which Perim in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, Kamaran,

the Turkish quarantine post, 40 m. north of Hodeda, and the Farsan

group, off the Abu Arish coast, are the principal. Hodeda is the only

port of any importance since the days of steamships began; the other

ports, Mokha, Lohaia and Kanfuda merely share in the coasting trade.

The south coast is free from the shoals that imperil the navigation of

the Red Sea, and in Aden it possesses the only safe natural harbour on

the route between Suez and India. Several isolated volcanic hills crop

out on the shore line between Aden and the straits; the most

remarkable are J. Kharaz, 2500 ft., and J. Shamshan, 1700 ft., at the

base of which Aden itself is built. In both of these the crater form

is very clearly marked. A low maritime plain, similar to the Tehama of

the western coast, extends for some 200 m. east of the Straits of

Bab-el-Mandeb, backed by mountains rising to 7000 ft. or more; farther

east the elevation of the highland decreases steadily, and in the

Hadramut, north of Mukalla, does not much exceed 4000 ft. The mountain

chain, too, is less distinctly marked, and becomes little more than

the seaward escarpment of the plateau which intervenes between the

coast and the Hadramut valley. This valley runs nearly east and west

for a distance of 500 m. from the eastern slopes of the Yemen

highlands to its mouth on the Mahra coast near Sihut. The greater part

of it is desert, but a short stretch lying between the 48th and 50th

meridians is well watered and exceptionally fertile. This begins a

little to the east of Shabwa, the ancient capital, now half buried in

the advancing sand, and for a distance of over 70 m. a succession of

villages and towns surrounded by fields and date groves extends along

the main valley and into the tributaries which join it from the south.

Shibam, Saiyun and Tarim are towns of 6000 or more inhabitants, and

Hajren and Haura in the W. Duwan are among the larger villages.

Himyaritic remains have been found here and in the W. Mefat which

enters the Gulf of Aden near Balhaf. A few small fishing villages or

ports are scattered along the coast, but except Mukalla and Shihr none

is of any importance.

The Gara coast was visited by the Bents, who went inland from Dhafar,

one of the centres of the old frankincense trade, to the crest of the

plateau. The narrow coastal strip seems to be moderately fertile, and

the hills which in places come down to the seashore are covered with

trees, among which the frankincense and other gum-bearing trees are

found. On the plateau, which has an altitude of 4000 ft., there is

good pasturage; inland the country slopes gently to a broad valley

beyond which the view was bounded by the level horizon of the desert.

Oman.

Oman (q.v.) includes all the south-eastern corner of the peninsula.

Its chief feature is the lofty range of J. Akhdar, 10,000 ft. above

sea-level. Like the great range of western Arabia, it runs parallel to

the coast; it differs, however, from the western range in that its

fall on the landward side is as abrupt and nearly as great as on its

seaward side. Its northern extremity, Ras Musandan, rises

precipitously from the straits of Hormuz; farther south the range

curves inland somewhat, leaving a narrow but fertile strip, known as

the Batina coast, between it and the sea, and containing several

populous towns and villages of which Sohar, Barka and Sib are the

chief. Muscat, the capital of the province and the principal port on

the coast, is surrounded on three sides by bare, rocky hills, and has

the reputation of being the hottest place in Arabia. Zwemer says the

fertility of the highland region of J. Akhdar is wonderful and is in

striking contrast to the barrenness of so much of the coast; water

issues in perennial springs from many rocky clefts, and is carefully

husbanded by the ingenuity of the people; underground channels, known

here as _faluj_, precisely similar to the _kanat_ or _karez_ of Persia

and Afghanistan, are also largely used. The principal villages on the

eastern slopes are Rustak, Nakhl and Semail in the well-watered valley

of the same name; on the western slopes are Tanuf and Nizwa, lying

immediately below the highest summit of the range; Semed, Ibra and

Bidiya in the W. Betha are all well-built villages with palm-groves

and irrigated fields. In the north-west the Dhahira district sloping

towards the Jewasimi coast is more steppe-like in character; but there

two oases of great fertility are found, of which Birema, visited by

both Miles and Zwemer, supports a population of 15,000. West of Abu

Dhabi a low flat steppe with no settled inhabitants extends up to the

Katr peninsula, merging on the north into the saline marshes which

border the Persian Gulf, and on the south into the desert.

The southern desert.

The great desert known as the Dahna or the Rub'a el Khali ("the empty

quarter") is believed to cover all the interior of southern Arabia

from the borders of Yemen in the west to those of Oman in the east.

Halevy in Nejran, Von Wrede in Hadramut, and Wellsted in Oman reached

its edge, though none of them actually entered it, and the guides

accompanying them all concurred in describing it as uninhabitable and

uncrossed by any track. Its northern fringe is no doubt frequented by

the Bedouin tribes of southern Nejd after the rains, when its sands,

like those of the northern desert, produce herbage; but towards the

east, according to Burckhardt's information, it is quite without

vegetation even in the winter and spring. The farthest habitable spot

to the south of Nejd is the Wadi Yabrin, which L. Pelly heard of from

the Ahl Murra Bedouins as once a fertile district, and which still

produces dates, though, owing to malaria, it is now deserted; thence

southward to the Hadramut valley no communication is known to exist.

[_Geology._--The geological structure of Arabia is very similar to

that of Egypt. The oldest rocks consist of granite and schist,

penetrated by intrusive dykes, and upon this foundation rest the

flat-lying sedimentary deposits, beginning with a sandstone like the

Nubian sandstone of Egypt. In the northern part of Arabia the

crystalline rocks form a broad area extending from the peninsula of

Sinai eastwards to Hail and southwards at least as far as Mecca.

Towards the north the crystalline floor is overlaid by the great

sandstone series which covers nearly the whole of the country north of

Hail. Upon the sandstone rest a few scattered outliers of limestone,

probably of Cretaceous age, the largest of which occur near Jauf and

east of Bureda. Over both sandstone and granite great sheets of lava

have been poured, and these, protecting the softer beds beneath from

further denudation, now stand up as the high plateaus and hills called

_harra_. Volcanic cones still exist in large numbers, and the sheets

of lava appear as fresh as any recent flows of Etna or Vesuvius.

Arabian manuscripts describe an eruption on the harra near Medina in

A.D. 1256. In the south of Arabia the crystalline floor appears at

intervals along the southern coast and on the shores of the Gulf of

Oman. At Marbat the granite is overlaid by sandstone, presumably the

Nubian sandstone: this is followed by marls containing Cenomanian

fossils; and these are overlaid by Upper Cretaceous limestones, upon

which rest isolated patches of _Alveolina_ limestone. Generally,

however, the Cretaceous beds do not appear, and the greater part of

southern Arabia seems to be formed of _Alveolina_ and nummulite

limestones of Tertiary age. An extinct volcano occurs at Aden, and

volcanic rocks are found at other places near the Straits of

Bab-el-Mandeb. Throughout the whole of Arabia, so far as is known, the

sedimentary beds show no signs of any but the most gentle folding.

Faulting, however, is by no means absent, and some of the faults are

of considerable magnitude. The Gulf of Akaba is a strip of country

which has been let down between two parallel faults, and several

similar faulted troughs occur in the Sinai peninsula. The Red Sea

itself is a great trough bounded by faults along each side.]

_Climate._--Owing to its low latitude and generally arid surface,

Arabia is on the whole one of the hottest regions of the earth; this

is especially the case along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the

southern half of the Red Sea, where the moist heat throughout the year

is almost intolerable to Europeans. In the interior of northern and

central Arabia, however, where the average level of the country

exceeds 3000 ft., the fiery heat of the summer days is followed by

cool nights, and the winter climate is fresh and invigorating; while

in the highlands of Asir and Yemen in the south-west, and of Oman in

the east, the summer heat is never excessive, and the winters are,

comparatively speaking, cold.

In the northern desert the temperature is subject to extreme

variations. Nolde states that on the 1st of February 1893 in the

desert north of Hail the thermometer fell from 78 deg. a little before

sunset to 18 deg. a quarter of an hour after. The midday temperatures

recorded by Huber at Hail during January and the first half of

February average about 65 deg. F., and water froze on several nights;

at Medina the winters are cold and night frosts of frequent

occurrence, and these conditions prevail over all the western part of

the Nejd plateau. In the east where the elevation is lower the climate

is warmer. In the elevated highland district which extends from Taif

to within 50 m. of Aden, the summer heat is tempered by the monsoon

winds, and the seasonal variation of temperature is less marked. From

observations made at Sana by Manzoni, Deflers and Glaser, the mean

temperature for the year of that city at an altitude of 7300 ft. and

in 15 deg. 22' N. appears to be 60 deg. F.; for July the mean maximum

was 77 deg., mean minimum 54 deg.; for January the figures were 62

deg.and 40 deg. respectively, the lowest recorded temperature in 1878

was 26.6 deg. on the 26th of January. At Aden at the sea-level the

mean temperature for the year is 83 deg.; the highest observed

temperature in 1904 was 97.3 deg., the lowest 67.4 deg.

The rainfall throughout northern and central Arabia is chiefly in the

winter months between October and April, and is scanty and irregular.

Doughty states that in 1876 rain to wet the ground had not fallen for

three years at Medain Salih; in that year showers fell on the 29th of

December and on two days in January and again in March. After a very

hot summer the bright weather changed to clouded skies on the 2nd of

October, rain fell tempestuously the same evening, and there were

showery days and nights till the 14th. The autumn rains fell that year

abundantly in the Nafud towards Jauf, but very little in the basin of

the W. Hamd (on the western slope). Doughty adds that the Nejd

highlands between Kasim and Mecca are watered yearly by seasonable

rains, which at Taif are expected about the end of August and last

commonly from four to six weeks. This appears to be about the northern

limit reached by the south-west monsoon, which from June to September

brings a fairly abundant rainfall to the Yemen highlands, though the

Tehama remains almost entirely rainless. The rainfall is heaviest

along the western fringe of the plateau, and penetrates inland in

decreasing quantity over a zone which perhaps extends to 100 m. in

width. In good seasons it is sufficient for the cultivation of the

summer crop of millet, and for the supply of the perennial streams and

springs, on which the irrigation of the winter crops of wheat and

barley depend. The amount measured at Dhala at the extreme south of

the plateau at an elevation of 4800 ft. was in 1902 as follows:--June,

4.0 in.; July, 5.5; August, 5.8; September, 1.9. Only slight showers

were recorded in the other months of the year. At higher elevations

the rainfall is no doubt heavier; Manzoni mentions that at Sana there

was constant rain throughout August and September 1878, and that the

thermometer during August did not reach 65 deg. In the Tehama

occasional showers fall during the winter months; at Aden the average

rainfall for the year is 2.97 in., but during 1904 only 0.5 in. was

recorded. Snow falls on the Harra and on the Tehama range in northern

Arabia, and Nolde records a fall of snow which lay on the Nafud on the

1st of February 1893. It also falls on J. Akhdar in Oman, but is very

rarely known on the Yemen mountains, probably because the

precipitation during the winter months is so slight.

The prevailing winds in northern Arabia as far as is known are from

the west; along the southern coast they are from the east; at Sana

there is generally a light breeze from the north-north-west from 9 to

11 A.M., from noon till 4 P.M. a steady and often strong wind blows

from the south-south-east, which dies away later. The climate is

extremely dry, but this is compensated for by the heavy mists which

sweep up from the plains during the rainless months and exercise a

most beneficial effect in the coffee-growing districts. This

phenomenon is known as the sukhemani or amama. In the morning the

Tehama, as seen from the mountain tops, appears buried in a sea of

white cloud; towards noon the clouds drift up the mountain slopes and

cover the summits with wreaths of light mist charged with moisture

which condenses on the trees and vegetation; in the afternoon they

disappear, and the evenings are generally clear and still.

_Fauna._--The wild animals of Arabia are all of the desert-loving

type: antelopes and gazelles are found in small numbers throughout the

peninsula; the latter are similar to the _chikara_ or ravine deer of

India. The larger antelopes, so common on the African side of the Gulf

of Aden, are not found, except one variety, the _Oryx beatrix_ (called

by the Arabs, wild cow), which is an inhabitant of the Nafud between

Tema and Hail; it is about the size of a donkey, white, and with long

straight horns. Hares are numerous both in the desert and in

cultivated tracts. In the Yemen mountains the _wal_, a wild goat with

massive horns, similar to the Kashmir ibex, is found; monkeys also

abound. Among smaller animals the jerboa and other descriptions of

rat, and the _wabar_ or cony are common; lizards and snakes are

numerous, most of the latter being venomous. Hyenas, wolves and

panthers are found in most parts of the country, and in the mountains

the leopard and wild cat. Of birds the ostrich is found in the Nafud

and in the W. Dawasir. Among game birds the bustard, guinea fowl, sand

grouse (_kata_), blue rock, green pigeon, partridge, including a large

chikor (_akb_) and a small species similar to the Punjab sisi; quail

and several kinds of duck and snipe are met with. In the cultivated

parts of Yemen and Tehama small birds are very numerous, so also are

birds of prey, vultures, kites and hawks.

Insects of all sorts abound; scorpions, centipedes, spiders, and an

ugly but harmless millipede known in Yemen as _hablub_ are very common

in summer. Ants and beetles too are very numerous, and anthills are

prominent features in many places. Locusts appear in great swarms and

do much damage; fires are lighted at night to attract them, and large

quantities are caught and eaten by the poorer people. Bees are kept,

and in Yemen and Hadramut the honey is exceptionally good.

Camel.

Of domesticated animals the camel is far the most useful to the Arab.

Owing to its endurance of thirst the long desert journeys which

separate the populous centres are made practicable, and in the spring

months, when green forage is plentiful in the desert, the Bedouins

pitch their camps for long periods far from any water, and not only

men but horses subsist on camel's milk. The Arabian camel belongs to

the one-humped species, though there are many varieties differing in

appearance as much as the thoroughbred race-horse from the English

cart-horse. The ordinary load for a pack camel is about 400 lb., and

in hot weather good camels will march 20 to 25 m. daily and only

require water every third or fourth day: in cool weather, with ample

green fodder they can go twenty-five days or more without drinking. A

good _dalul_ or riding camel will carry his rider 100 m. a day for a

week on end. Nolde gives an instance from his own experience of a

camel rider covering 62 m. in seven hours. The pure-bred riding camel

is only found in perfection in inner Arabia; for some unexplained

reason when taken out of their own country or north of the 30th degree

they rapidly degenerate.

Horse.

The horse does not occupy the important position in the Bedouin

economy that is popularly supposed. In Nejd the number of horses is,

comparatively speaking, very small; the want of water in the Nafud

where alone forage is obtainable, and the absence of forage in the

neighbourhood of the towns makes horse-breeding on a large scale

impracticable there. Horses are in fact only kept by the principal

sheiks, and by far the larger proportion of those now in Nejd are the

property of the amir and his family. These are kept most of the year

in the Nafud, five or ten days' march from Hail, where they find their

own food on the desert herbage. When a raid is in contemplation, they

are brought in and given a little barley for a few weeks. Reared in

this way they are capable of marvellous endurance, marching during a

raid twenty hours a day for eight or ten days together. As a rule,

they are only mounted at the moment of attack, or in pursuit. Water

and forage have to be carried for them on camels.

The great majority of the horses that come into the market as Arabs,

are bred in the northern desert and in Mesopotamia, by the various

sections of the Aneza and Shammar tribes, who emigrated from Nejd

generations ago, taking with them the original Nejd stock. In size and

appearance, and in everything but endurance, these northern horses are

admittedly superior to the true Nejdi. A few of the latter are

collected by dealers in the nomad camps and exported chiefly from

Kuwet. The amir Mahommed Ibn Rashid used to send down about one

hundred young horses yearly.

Asses of excellent quality are bred all over the country; they are

much used as mounts by the richer townsmen. Except in the settled

districts horned cattle are not numerous; they are similar to the

Indian humped cattle, but are greatly superior in milking qualities.

The great wealth of the Arabs is in their flocks of sheep and goats;

they are led out to pasture soon after sunrise, and in the hotter

months drink every second day. In the spring when the succulent

_ashub_ and _adar_ grow plentifully in the desert, they go for weeks

without drinking. They are milked once a day about sunset by the women

(the men milk the camels), and a large proportion of the milk is made

into _samn_, clarified butter, or _marisi_, dried curd. The wool is

not of much value, and is spun by the women and woven into rugs, and

made up into saddlebags or into the black Bedouin tents.

_Flora._--The flora of Arabia has been investigated by P. Forskal, the

botanist of Niebuhr's mission, P.E. Botta, G. Schweinfurth and A.

Deflers, to whose publications the technical reader is referred. Its

general type approaches more closely to the African than to that of

southern Asia. In the higher regions the principal trees are various

species of fig, tamarind, carob and numerous kinds of cactiform

_Euphorbia_, of which one, the _Euphorbia arborea_, grows to a height

of 20 ft. Of Coniferae the juniper is found on the higher slopes of J.

Sabur near Taiz, where Botta describes it as forming an extensive

forest and growing to a large size; it is also found in the range

overlooking the W. Madin, 50 m. W. of Aden. Considerable forests are

said to exist in Asir, and Burton found a few fine specimens which he

regarded as the remains of an old forest, on the Tehama range in

Midian. On the rocky hill-sides in Yemen the _Adenium Obesum_ is

worthy of notice, with its enormous bulb-like stems and brilliant red

flowers. Some fine aloes or agaves are also found. In the cultivated

upland valleys all over Arabia the _Zisyphus jujuba_, called by some

travellers lotus, grows to a large tree; its thorny branches are

clipped yearly and used to fence the cornfields among which it grows.

In the broad sandy wadi beds the tamarisk (_athl_) is everywhere

found; its wood is used for making domestic implements of all sorts.

Among fruit trees the vine, apricot, peach, apple, quince, fig and

banana are cultivated in the highlands, and in the lower country the

date palm flourishes, particularly throughout the central zone of

Arabia, in Hejaz, Nejd and El Hasa, where it is the prime article of

food. A hundred kinds of date are said to grow at Medina, of which the

_birni_ is considered the most wholesome; the _halwa_ and the _jalebi_

are the most delicately flavoured and sell at very high rates; the

_khulas_ of El Hasa is also much esteemed.

Of cereals the common millets, _dhura_ and _dukhn_, are grown in all

parts of the country as the summer crop, and in the hot irrigated

Tehama districts three crops are reaped in the year; in the highlands

maize, wheat and barley are grown to a limited extent as the winter

crop, ripening at the end of March or in April. Among vegetables the

common kinds grown include radishes, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons,

potatoes, onions and leeks. Roses are grown in some places for the

manufacture of _atr_, or attar of roses; mignonette, jasmine, thyme,

lavender and other aromatic plants are favourites in Yemen, when the

Arabs often stick a bunch in their head-dress.

Coffee.

Of the products special to Arabia coffee comes first; it is nowhere

found wild, and is believed to have been introduced from Abyssinia in

the 6th century A.D. It thrives on the seaward slopes of the western

range in the zone of the tropical rains, at altitudes between 4000 and

7000 ft. The principal centres of production are the upper valleys of

the W. Surdad, between Kaukaban and Manakha, and particularly on J.

Haraz; in the Wadi Zubed west of Uden; in Hajaria on the slopes of J.

Sabur, and in the Yafa district north-east of Aden. It is planted in

terraces on the mountain slopes; shady trees, such as tamarind and

fig, are planted in the border as a protection from the sun, and the

terraces are irrigated by channels led from a neighbouring rivulet or

spring. The plants are raised from seedlings, and when six or seven

weeks old they are transplanted in rows 4 to 6 ft. apart; they require

watering twice a month, and bear in two to four years. The berries are

dried in the sun and sent down to Hodeda or Aden, where they are

subjected to a process for separating the husk from the bean; the

result is about 50% of cleaned berries, _bun safi_, which is exported,

and a residue of husk or _kishr_, from which the Yemenis make their

favourite beverage.

Another plant universally used as a stimulant in Southern Arabia is

_khat_ (_Catha edulis_). The best is grown on J. Sabur and the

mountainous country round Taiz. It is a small bush propagated from

cuttings which are left to grow for three years; the leaves are then

stripped, except a few buds which develop next year into young shoots,

these being cut and sold in bunches under the name of _khat mubarak_;

next year on the branches cut back new shoots grow; these are sold as

_khat malhani_, or second-year kat, which commands the highest price.

The bush is then left for three years, when the process is repeated.

The leaves and young shoots are chewed; they have stimulating

properties, comparable with those of the coca of Peru.

The aromatic gums for which Arabia was famed in ancient times are

still produced, though the trade is a very small one. The tree from

which myrrh is extracted grows in many places, but the industry is

chiefly carried on at Suda, 60 m. north-north-east of Sana.

Longitudinal slits are made in the bark, and the gum is caught in cups

fixed beneath. The balsam of Mecca is produced in the same way,

chiefly in the mountains near the W. Safra between Yambu and Medina.

The stony plains which cover so large a part of the country are often

covered with acacia jungle, and in the dry water-courses a kind of

wild palm, the _dom_, abounds, from the leaves of which baskets and

mats are woven. Brushwood and rough pasturage of some sort is found

almost everywhere, except in the neighbourhood of the larger

settlements, where forage and firewood have to be brought in from long

distances. The Nafud sands, too, are tufted in many places with bushes

or small trees, and after the winter rains they produce excellent

pasture.

_Population._--The people, according to their own traditions, are

derived from two stocks, the pure Arabs, descended from Kahtan or

Joktan, fourth in descent from Shem; and the Mustarab or naturalized

Arabs, from Ishmael. The former are represented at the present day by

the inhabitants of Yemen, Hadramut and Oman, in general a settled

agricultural population; the latter by those of Hejaz, Nejd, El Hasa,

the Syrian desert and Mesopotamia, consisting of the Bedouin or pastoral

tribes (see ARABS and BEDOUINS). This distinction between the

characteristics of the two races is only true in a general sense, for a

considerable population of true Bedouin origin has settled down to

agricultural life in the oases of Hejaz and Nejd, while in southern

Arabia the tribes dwelling on the fringe of the great desert have to a

certain extent adopted the nomad life.

Both among the nomad and settled Arabs the organization is essentially

tribal. The affairs of the tribe are administered by the sheiks, or

heads of clans and families; the position of sheik in itself gives no

real governing power, his word and counsel carry weight, but his

influence depends on his own personal qualities. All matters affecting

the community are discussed in the _majlis_ or assembly, to which any

tribesman has access; here, too, are brought the tribesmen's causes;

both sides plead and judgment is given impartially, the loser is fined

so many head of small cattle or camels, which he must pay or go into

exile. Murder can be expiated by the payment of _diya_ or blood-money,

if the kinsmen of the murdered man consent; they may, however, claim the

life of the murderer, and long and troublesome blood feuds often ensue,

involving the relatives of both sides for generations.

Apart from the tribesmen there is in Hejaz and south Arabia a

privileged, religious class, the Sharifs or Seyyids, who claim descent

from Mahomet through his daughter Fatima. Until the Egyptian invasion in

1814 the Sharifs of Mecca were the recognized rulers of Hejaz, and

though the Turks have attempted to suppress their importance, the Sharif

still executes justice according to the Mahommedan law in the holy

cities, though, nominally, as a Turkish official. In Yemen and Hadramut

many villages are occupied exclusively by this religious hierarchy, who

are known as Ashraf, Sada or Kudha (i.e. Sharifs, Seyyids or Kadhis);

the religious affairs of the tribes are left in their hands; they do

not, however, interfere in tribal matters generally, or join in

fighting.

Below these two classes, which may be looked on as the priestly and the

military castes, there is, especially in the settled districts, a large

population of artisans and labourers, besides negro slaves and their

descendants, slave or free. The population of Khaibar consists almost

entirely of the latter, and in Hail Huber estimates the pure Arab

inhabitants at only one-third of the whole. In the desert, too, there is

a widely scattered tribe, the Salubi, which from its name (_Salib_,

cross) is conjectured to be of early Christian origin; they are great

hunters, killing ostriches and gazelles; the Arabs despise them as an

inferior race, but do not harm them; they pay a small tax to the tribe

under whose protection they live, and render service as labourers, for

which they receive in the spring milk and cheese; at the date harvest

they get wages in kind; with this, and the produce of the chase, they

manage to exist in the desert without agriculture or flocks.

The Jews in Arabia.

In southern Arabia the Jews form a large element in the town population.

According to one authority their presence in Yemen dates from the time

of Solomon, others say from the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar.

Manzoni estimated their number in Sana in 1878 at 1700 out of a total

population of 20,000; at Aden they are a numerous and wealthy community,

with agents in most of the towns of Yemen. Even in remote Nejran,

Halevy, himself a Jew, found a considerable colony of his

co-religionists. They wear a distinctive garb and are not allowed to

carry arms or live in the same quarter as Moslems. Another foreign

element of considerable strength in the coast towns of Muscat, Aden and

Jidda, is the British Indian trading class; many families of Indian

origin also have settled at Mecca, having originally come as pilgrims.

Estimates of the population of Arabia vary enormously, and the figures

given in the following table can only be regarded as a very rough

approximation:--

Hejaz 300,000

Yemen and Asir 1,800,000

Nejd 1,000,000

Hadramut 150,000

Oman 1,000,000

El Hasa 300,000

Syrian desert and border 275,000

---------

4,825,000

_Communications._--The principal land routes in Arabia are those leading

to the holy cities. In the present day the Syrian pilgrim route, or Darb

el Haj, from Damascus to Medina and Mecca is the most used. The annual

pilgrim caravan or haj, numbering some 6000 people with 10,000 pack

animals, is escorted by a few Turkish irregulars known as _agel_; small

fortified posts have been established at the regular halting-places some

30 m. apart, each furnished with a well and reservoir, and for the

further protection of the haj, payments are made to the Bedouin tribes

through whose territories the route passes. The road is a mere camel

track across the desert, the chief places passed are Ma'an on the Syrian

border, a station on the old Sabaean trade route to Petra, and Medain

Salih, the site of the rock-cut tombs and inscriptions first brought to

notice by Doughty. From Medina the route usually followed descends the

W. Safra to Badr Hunen, whence it keeps near the coast passing Rabigh

and Khulesa to Mecca. The total distance, 1300 m., is covered in forty

days.

The Egyptian pilgrim route from Cairo, across the Sinai peninsula and

down the Midian coast to El Wijh, joins the Syrian route at Badr Hunen.

It also was formerly provided with stations and reservoirs, but owing to

the greater facilities of the sea journey from Suez to Jidda it is now

little used. Another important route is that taken by the Persian or

Shia pilgrims from Bagdad and Kerbela across the desert, by the wells of

Lina, to Bureda in Kasim; thence across the steppes of western Nejd till

it crosses the Hejaz border at the Ria Mecca, 50 m. north-east of the

city. It lies almost entirely in the territory of the amir Ibn Rashid of

J. Shammar, who derives a considerable revenue from the pilgrimage. The

old reservoirs on this route attributed to Zubeda, wife of Harun al

Rashid, were destroyed during the Wahhabi raids early in the 19th

century, and have not been repaired. The Yemen pilgrim route, known as

the Haj el Kabsi, led from Sada through Asir to Taif and Mecca, but it

is no longer used.

The principal trade routes are those leading from Damascus to Jauf and

across the Nafud to Hail. Other important routes leading to Nejd are

those from Kuwet to Hail, and from El Hasa to Riad respectively. In the

west and south the principal routes, other than those already mentioned,

are from Yambu to Medina, from Jidda to Mecca, Hodeda to Sana, Aden to

Sana, and from Mukalla to the Hadramut valley. Railway construction has

begun in Arabia, and in 1908 the Hejaz line, intended to connect

Damascus with Mecca, had reached Medina, 500 m. south of Ma'an. This

line is of great strategical importance, as strengthening the Turkish

hold on the Red Sea provinces. But the principal means of commercial

communication for a country like Arabia must always be by sea. Bahrein,

Kuwet and Muscat are in steam communication with India, and the Persian

Gulf ports; all the great lines of steamships call at Aden on their way

between Suez and the East, and regular services are maintained between

Suez, Jidda, Hodeda and Aden, as well as to the ports on the African

coast, while native coasting craft trade to the smaller ports on the Red

Sea and Indian Ocean.

_Commerce._--The total value of the trade of Aden for 1904 amounted to

over L6,000,000. The imports to Jidda in the same year were

L1,405,000, largely consisting of rice, wheat and other food stuffs

from India; the exports, which have dwindled away in late years,

amounted in 1904 to only L25,000. To balance the exports and imports

specie was exported in the three years 1902-1904 amounting to

L2,319,000; a large proportion of this was perhaps provided by cash

brought into the country by pilgrims.

The pilgrim traffic increased largely in 1904 as compared with

previous years; 74,600 persons landed at Jidda, 18,000 of whom were

from British India, 13,000 from Java and the Straits Settlements, and

the remainder from Turkish territory, Egypt and other countries: 235

out of a total of 334 steamships engaged in this traffic were British.

The trade of Hodeda, which contributes by far the largest share to

that of Turkish Yemen, fell off considerably during the period from

1901-1905, chiefly owing to the disturbed state of the country. In the

latter year the imports amounted to L467,000, and the exports to

L451,000; coffee, the mainstay of Yemen trade, shows a serious decline

from L302,000 in 1902 to L229,000 in 1904; this is attributable partly

to the great increase of production in other countries, but mainly to

the insecurity of the trade routes and the exorbitant transit dues

levied by the Turkish administration.

Oman, through its chief port Muscat, had a total trade of about

L550,000, two-thirds of which is due to imports and one-third to

exports. The chief items of imports are arms and ammunition, rice,

coffee and piece goods; the staple export is dates, which in a good

year accounts for nearly half the total; much of the trade is in the

hands of British Indians, and of the shipping 92% is British.

The principal trade centre of the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf is

Bahrein; the total volume of trade of which amounted in 1904 to

L1,900,000, nearly equally divided between imports and exports; rice,

piece goods, &c., form the bulk of the former, while pearls are the

most valuable part of the latter. (R. A. W.)